The role of streaming platforms and story-telling in creating a documentary Premium

The pre-internet era belief that documentaries are just social commentaries by NGOs or governments has long been debunked. Streaming platforms are investing more in documentaries and docu-series which are biographies, stories on true crime, climate change and so on

Being a recognition of effort and validation to the creator aside, awards like the Oscars have an undeniable cultural value that can influence a market like India. This cultural value is bigger than the segmented post-pandemic, post-streaming Indian consumer base. Leave aside the Oscars, we are witnessing live how even some surprises at the box office can spring a trend that adds up to the volatility of this market, such as when a film like KGF: Chapter 2 brings about a handful of projects that try to emulate the same.

The non-fiction scene in India might be far from reaching its full potential in terms of popularity and pop-cultural significance but the overwhelming response to Netflix’s documentary The Elephant Whisperers, both before and after the Oscar win, signify many things. Chiefly, how does the mainstream popularity of non-fiction look in the future? And how significant is the role of streaming platforms in this case?

Documentaries gained direct access to mainstream consumers when YouTube came into the picture. For fans of non-fiction, earlier there were designated websites or the ever-gracious torrent. So who wouldn’t like it when a reliable business model comes into the mix? There birthed the curve that began with the boom of streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ Hotstar. The list of home-grown documentaries and docu-series that are available to stream were unending. Cut to the present, there is now a notion that streaming platforms might even play a role in the Oscars!

The presence of a nomination on streaming doesn’t decide a win; in fact, the Oscars have the Academy members voting and not the viewers. Yes, The Elephant Whisperers’ presence on Netflix gave it a lot of mileage, and All That Breathes, the Indian nomination that competed in the category of Best Documentary Feature, is yet to find a streaming release in India (it’s out on HBO Max in the U.S.). But ascertaining if the popularity of the title at home, among audiences with the biggest digital presence in the world, played a role in director Kartiki Gonsalves’ win is impossible.

It also might be inaccurate to conclude that the lack of home advantage might be why All That Breathes lost. In the case of the Shaunak Sen directorial and all the other contenders for the Best Documentary Feature, they might just be unlucky: they had to face a goliath in Navalny, the final winner. Navalny, which is streaming on HBO Max, had a lot going for it. The film about the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, allegedly by Russian President Vladimir Putin, is coming out at a time when anti-Putin sentiments are on a high, particularly in the U.S. — Oscar’s home and the only country in which HBO Max is available — due to the history between the two and the Russia-Ukraine war.

This might have appealed slightly more to the Academy members than documentaries on a bird-rescuing duo in Delhi ( All That Breathes), the lives of volcanologists ( Fire of Love), and an American war against the opioid epidemic ( All the Beauty and...). A House Made of Splinters, on the orphaned children in eastern Ukraine, is anti-Putin only in spirit. Moreover, Navalny is directly produced by HBO Max, unlike the other nominees. You would expect the streaming giant to go all-out with their campaign.

On the Documentary Short front, The Elephant Whisperers, a documentary not produced by Netflix, bested both The Martha Mitchell Effect and Stranger at the Gate, two films with American political relevance. So, for anything conclusive to be deduced from the Oscar wins, one needs to understand the role the streaming platforms play in campaigning, because, impressing 10,000 academy members takes effort. It might just be the case that it is the subject of the short, the brilliance of Kartiki, and the campaigning prowess of Guneet Monga that got us the win. Our attempts to reach Netflix executives and Kartiki Gonsalves to understand the role Netflix played were unsuccessful. But it is a given that good storytelling always takes more precedence than campaigning.